Picture Play Magazine (Jul - Dec 1929)

The Screen in Review 67 major triumph, but the modesty of the film is such that one feels it would be an embarrassment to place it in a class high< r than its intent. The story traces the humble professional Deginnings of Eddie Burns and Lily Clark, whose partnership ripens into marriage a» they struggle along the small-time circuits. Finally, the coming of a baby makes it necessary for Eddie to hire a substitute partner in Gloria, who succeeds in vamping him at the momenl a telegram comes offering big time. At the same moment comes also his wife who, quickly sensing the situation, leaves Eddie to his fate with Gloria. Soon he loses his foothold as a big-time attraction and his quick descent rids him of Gloria. Reduced to slinging hash, he hears that his wife is in Hollywood where, as a starving extra, he meets her, a star. Of course there is quick reconciliation, which surprises no one. But beauty and truth and tenderness are found in Mr. Tracy's marvelous portrayal of the dancer — a portrait so delicately etched that one is thrilled by the actor's uncanny and seemingly effortless grasp of a moment charged with emotion by means of a catch in his voice, a stammer, a laugh that ends before it is heard. Mae Clarke, who is also from the Stage, plays the wife with moving sincerity, and Josephine Dunn is, as usual, perfect as the heartless blonde. Stepin Fetchit, the negro actor, creates laughs as a keeper of trained seals. Queen of Frenetics. After "The Letter" any appearance of Jeanne Fagels is important, for she is always arresting, intelligent, provocative, individual. She is all these in "Jealousy," but the picture doesn't coalesce into a strong attraction, and certainly not one strong enough for Miss Eagels. One of the reasons lies in the fact that the play was written for two characters only, Yvonne, the mistress of a rich, old man, and Pierre, the poor, young artist whom she marries. In bringing it to the screen the producers have necessarily included scenes and characters that were only spoken of in the original dialogue. The result is a somewhat rambling narrative lacking distinction, or marked sympathy for any of the characters. But it is worth seeing for the sake of Miss Eagels, who makes Yvonne a fascinating figure far from the conventional heroine with a "past." She marries Pierre, because she really loves him and lies to escape the consequences of her deception. But when his jealousy becomes more and more intense, she is drawn by further lying into an impasse from which there is no escape. The climax comes when her former lover is murdered and an innocent man is arrested, a fine note of irony occurring when Pierre confesses his crime to Yvonne at the moment newsboys are shouting the news of the other man's release. And that's all there is to it. Fredric March, as Pierre, does well enough in a role that somehow isn't interesting, but Halliwell Hobbes, from the stage, performs brilliantly as a man that is— the rich lover, A Modern Miles Standish. If you like thrilling airplane maneuvers, you will find them the feature of "Flight," and finely done they are, too. But if you demand something more of screen entertainment, you will find the picture rather weak. For example, in the story and characterizations. At the outset it is only fair to say that the acting of the principals, Jack Holt, Ralph Graves, and Lila Lee, is good. But what they are called upon to do is not exactly adult, though Heaven knows Mr. Holt has passed the age of indiscretion in acting, lie is "Panama'' Williams, a sergeant in the marine Hying corps, given to talking out of the side of his mouth and expectorating tobacco juice, but so shy that when it comes to telling Lila Lee. as Nurse Elinor, that he loves her, that — well, he just has to get his youthful protege to do it for him. The protege is Mr. Graves, as "Lefty" Phelps, a football player, who has joined the marines in an anguished effort to forget the stigma which he fears will forever brand him as long as men in civilian life regard him as a pariah. My, my, what is the stigma, you ask? Have a heart — Lefty was guilty of a faux pas on the football field. So far as I could see. he just ran the wrong way. [Continued on page '">] "Gold Diggers of Broadway. "Flight." "The Hottentot." "The Girl from Havana."